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Superparamagnetic nanoparticles for biomedical applications

[Truncated abstract] In the past decade, the synthesis of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) has received considerable attention due to their potential applications in biomedical fields. However, success in size and shape control of the SPIONs has been mostly achieved through organic routes using large quantities of toxic or/and expensive precursors in organic reaction medium at high reaction temperature. This has limited the biomedical applications of SPIONs and therefore, development of a synthetic method under aqueous condition that is reproducible, scalable, environmentally benign, and economically feasible for industrial production is of paramount importance in order to fully realise their practical applications. Spinning Disc Processing (SDP) has been used to synthesise superparamagnetic magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles at room temperature via a modified chemical precipitation method under continuous flow condition and offer a potential alternative to be applied to SPIONs production. SDP has extremely rapid mixing under plug flow conditions, effective heat and mass transfer, allowing high throughput with low wastage solvent efficiency. The synthesis process involves passing ammonia gas over a thin aqueous film of Fe2+/3+ which is introduced through a jet feed close to the centre of a rapidly rotating disc (500-2500 rpm). Synthetic parameters such as precursor concentrations, temperature, flow rate, disc speed, and surface texture influence the particle sizes. ... Magnetic silica microspheres are receiving great attention for possible applications in magnetic targeting drug delivery, bioseparation and enzyme isolation. However, the current available methods for preparation suffer from the setback of low loading of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in the silica microsphere, which result in low magnetic moment, thereby limiting their practical applications. Therefore it is of considerable importance to develop new alternative synthetic methods for fabricating magnetic silica microspheres with high magnetic nanoparticles loading. Superparamagentic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (8-10 nm diameter) and curcumin have been encapsulated in mesoporous silica in a simple multiplestep self assembly approach process with high Fe3O4 nanoparticles loading (37%). The synthesis involves loading of curcumin in the Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) micellar rod in the presence of superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles via a parallel synergistic approach. The synthesised magnetic mesoporous silica composite material is stable, superparamagnetic with high saturation magnetisation before and after curcumin leaching experiment. Under physiological pH in phosphate buffer, the curcumin is slowly released over several days. These magnetic mesoporous silica are expected to have great potential as targeted drug delivery systems.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/246427
Date January 2009
CreatorsChin, Suk Fun
PublisherUniversity of Western Australia. School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences, University of Western Australia. Chemistry Discipline Group
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
RightsCopyright Suk Fun Chin, http://www.itpo.uwa.edu.au/UWA-Computer-And-Software-Use-Regulations.html

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